Parshat Miketz; Genesis 41:1-44:17 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This portion is always read during Chanukah. Is this a mere calendarical coincidence? Or is there a deeper connection between the events of Parshat Miketz and Chanukah.

On first reading the stories contained in the portion continues the stories of Joseph in Egypt. While the story of Chanukah, which happened significantly later in Jewish history, is the story of the Maccabees fight against the Syrian-Greeks to worship as Jews. This portion details the rise of Joseph to the position of power in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. After interpreting Pharaohs’ disturbing dreams, Joseph concludes that Egypt is in for a cycle of bounty and famine. He suggests boldly to the Pharaoh a plan to prepare the country so that none will starve. And he does so humbly asserting that God is the one who sent Pharaoh the message. Pharaoh is impressed, even awed by Joseph’s ability and insight and hands him his ring and raises him from lowly prisoner to a person in command of his court and country. This is the story of an outsider who becomes and insider in a foreign land all the while preserving his own religious and historical ties to his people.

The story of the Maccabees is a very different story. It is the story of Jews who in their own land are oppressed and kept from preserving their own religious and historical ties to Jewish tradition. King Antiochus has defiled the Temple, setting idols up in the house of God’s Divine Presence in Jerusalem. He has forbid the priests from offering the proper sacrifices and created and environment of terror, killing innocents across a large swath of Israel. Mattathias and his sons led by Judah, revolt against the terror of King Antiochus and his army and lead a 3 year battle against the world’s great army. They are successful in their endeavors and rededicate the Temple on the 25th of Kislev—3 years to the day that the war began! They lovingly clean and restore the Temple removing the offending pagan idols and rekindle the sacred menorah as part of their celebration. Their faith and commitment keeps them strong even in the face of such great evil and terror as inflicted by King Antiochus.

Joseph and his later relations the Maccabees do have this in common: their faith in God. For both Joseph and the Maccabees they understand that God plays a role in their lives and in the world. They celebrate that role and do everything in their power to highlight God’s hand. Joseph is clear in his explanation of the Pharaoh’s dreams that it is God who is sending a message to Pharaoh. Isn’t this dangerous since the Pharaoh is a god in the Egyptian pantheon? A for the Maccabees their willingness to fight to restore the dwelling place of the Divine and their willingness to defend their faith in the face of such great evil brings God’s hand to bear in their day. Both Joseph and the Maccabees know full well that the words of the prophet Zechariah (whose haftarah is read on Chanukah) “That not by might, not by power but by My Spirit alone.” Each in their own way—Joseph in his way and in his era and the Maccabees in their way in their era our witness that God’s power, spirit, strength, and blessing is at work in the world and their faith should be an inspiration to all of us.

So while the Joseph story doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with the story of Chanukah and the Maccabees. It in fact connects to the message of Chanukah in a very deep way, teaching us that God’s divine presence speaks to us, and works through us to bring about miracles. Just as God brought the miracle of a rescue of the prisoner Joseph to become prime minister of Egypt, and just as God brought the miracle of defeating the greatest army of its day and the reclamation of the Temple—it is still possible that God will do miracles for us in our day and time. Ken Yehi Ratzon- so may it be God’s Will.

Parshat Vayeshev; Genesis 37:1-40:23 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

In this week’s portion, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers and taken off to Egypt. Their dislike of him as the favorite of their father Jacob takes this nasty turn and sets up the future of the Israelites in Egypt.

Once in Egypt, a courtier of Pharaoh, Potiphar, buys Joseph. He takes a liking to him and makes him his personal attendant. The Torah is very clear that God blessed Joseph in all his endeavors. More importantly, Potiphar recognizes the God-given blessing and talents in Joseph and puts him in charge of his household. His household is blessed by God and prosperous under Joseph’s hand because of God’s blessing. Potiphar has few cares in the world because Joseph is taking care of him and his affairs.

But Joseph’s good looks and success set him up for trouble with Potiphar’s wife. She continuously tries to seduce him. She puts him in compromising positions. But Joseph refuses her advances. Joseph refuses not only out of loyalty and devotion to Potiphar but articulates that it would be an affront to God. Joseph isn’t afraid to make a moral judgment. This doesn’t deter the wife who still harasses Joseph and tries to corner him sexually.

Finally, she does get him alone and tries to grab him by force. But Joseph flees leaving his coat in her hand. She uses this as “evidence” against Joseph claiming falsely that he tried to seduce her.

Of course this causes Potiphar to imprison Joseph. But even while in prison, God continued to bless Joseph easing his way in the jail.

How ironic that a charge of seduction/rape happens to Joseph since this is what happened to his sister Dinah in parshat Vayishlach. Dinah is raped by Shechem. And though he tried to cover up his act of violence by wanting to marry her, he paid with his life as well as the lives of all of the townspeople at the hands of her brothers Simeon and Levi. They took out their revenge upon Shechem and his father Hamor and all the townsmen.

While Dinah wasn’t the perpetrator but the victim, here Joseph is falsely accused of being the perpetrator but indeed he is the victim as well. We never hear Dinah’s voice in her story and we never hear of her again. She isn’t mentioned. The silence and I think pain of the story—painful because of what happened to her, painful because of the the brothers’ retribution, painful because her father was ready to marry her off to the perpetrator. It isn’t hard to imagine that Dinah never recovered from the horror of her rape. There are a few midrashic passages—that state she married her brother Simeon and another in the Talmud that says she married Job. But Dinah isn’t heard from again.

Joseph too could have been paralyzed in many ways by this incident. Thrown in jail, he could have remained their never amounting to much. And yet, we know that God was continuously with him. Joseph indeed rises above this incident to become second only to Pharoah in the land of Egypt.

Do you think Joseph understood his sister better after this incident? Do you think he understood the dynamic between power and the use of sex as an instrument of power? That is surely what Potiphar’s wife was doing.

As Joseph climbs to power in Egypt following this incident, he will have many opportunities to use and abuse his power. Hopefully, this incident with Potiphar’s wife shapes him into being one whose need for revenge is muted.

It certainly should give each of us a pause for reflection on the uses and abuses of power in our own lives.

Parshat Vayishlach; Genesis 32:1-36:43 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week’s Torah portion contains a most horrific and painful episode in the life of Jacob. The rape of his daughter Dinah is recorded in this section of Torah. Dinah the only girl named among the 12 sons of Jacob. Dinah is the daughter of Leah and her full brothers are Simeon and Levi, Reuben and Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. We can only imagine that this trauma stays with Dinah her whole life. Certainly the traditional commentators, Rabbi Ibn Ezra and Rashi both comment that Dinah was a widow her whole life and they imply she resided with her brother Simeon’s household for the rest of her life.

Dinah on a journey to the countryside near the city of Shechem were her family had come to dwell was taken by force by none other than the son of the chieftan. That son was also named Shechem. “Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her and took her and lay with her by force.” (Gen 34:2).
This crime was certainly awful for Dinah in many ways. It was also a mark upon her family, an affront to all of them. Her brothers, once they heard the news, came home from the fields and they were very upset and outraged. Even though their father’s reaction was one of silence.

The chieftan, Hamor, Shechem’s father, tries to placate Jacob and his sons by proposing a marriage between his son Shechem and the victim, Dinah. Not an uncommon practice in the ancient near east. In fact in Deuteronomy 22:28-19 if a man has lain with a virgin, he has to marry her and is prohibited from ever divorcing her. Her father also is to receive compensation for her as well, commonly called the bride price. This is precisely what Hamor is proposing.

And yet, the brothers still outraged upon the sister’s behalf answer Hamor by saying they couldn’t possibly agree to have their sister intermarry with them. And the brother’s pitch what today we would call conversion—they argue that if Shechem really wants to marry Dinah that they will all have to be circumcised. This of course is the sign of the covenant with our God and in short hand tells the reader of the Torah that Hamor and Shechem and their townsmen will forsake their idolatry. Interestingly enough Hamor and Shechem agree and rush to do so, convincing all their fellow townsmen to do the same.

But the theme of deception that has haunted Jacob since he deceived his own father and brother, comes back to haunt him as now his own children are involved in a deception. While the townspeople and Shechem are supposedly recovering from their surgery, Simeon and Levi liberate their sister from the palace of Shechem and slay both Hamor the chieftain, his son Shechem the perpetrator and all of the men of the town. Their promise to give their sister as wife, following her violation by Shechem is no promise at all. Further the other brothers participated in the deception by plundering the town. The torah tells us, “They seized their flocks and herds and asses, all that was inside the town and outside; all their wealth, all their children, and their wives, all that was in the houses, they took as captives and booty.”(Gen. 34:28-29).

The brothers of Dinah not only declared war but also totally devastated the residents of the city of Shechem. They destroyed their civilization. The violence that Shechem did to their sister is now turned upon the entire city. They rape the city.

Interestingly, enough Jacob can only worry about how he will look. He worries that neighboring peoples will gather against him to retaliate on behalf of the Hivites. Jacob seems to not care about the initial wounding of his daughter Dinah in the same way the brothers are. They ask their father, “ Should our sister be treated like a whore?” (Gen. 24:31). The question of course is never answered.

And so Jacob’s flaws come to the surface yet again. Even though he is capable of hearing and recognizing God’s presence as he did last week, Jacob cannot seem to face the evil done to his own family in what happened to Dinah. He worries about the external appearance but not the familial connections internally. This is not unlike his deception of his father Isaac. Jacob and his mother Rebekkah ensured the external promises that God made that the older child will serve the younger. But they ignored the damage done by favoritism and the internal damage to the relationships in the family by stealing the blessing.

Thus this same pattern is now repeated with his own children.

There is a great lesson for all of us in this week’s parasha. It calls upon us to pay close attention to the pain of our loved ones. Not everyone has to go through the horror and violence of a rape or deception but imagine if Jacob had been more sensitive, more caring and yes, more present for his brother, father, and children. We are called upon to care for and pay close attention to the lives of our family members and to honor the nuances of their joys and yes, pain as well.

May we rise to the task.

Parshat Vayetze; Genesis 28:10-32:3 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Parshat Vayetze records the comings and goings of Jacob to Haran as a single young man and back to the land of Canaan as a husband, father, and family patriarch. First he is fleeing his family and particularly the wrath of his brother Esau after receiving the blessing from their father, Isaac, in Esau’s stead. Jacob’s deception will come back to haunt him and this portion plays out that theme.

Even though Jacob is clearly the chosen one of God, and has an amazing Divine encounter during his journey eastward, Jacob can’t escape the reality that he sought the blessing of his father Isaac by dressing up and pretending to be his brother Esau.

Upon arrival in Haran, Jacob goes to work for his uncle Laban. He believes he is working for Laban’s daughter Rachel’s hand in marriage. For seven years Jacob works, and the torah says, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.” But on the wedding night, Laban substituted his older daughter Leah for Rachel. Jacob must not have looked at whom he was with— (and that is a whole other issue to discuss!) because in the next morning he was surprised to find out that he had been with Leah and not Rachel. Jacob asks his uncle, “ I was in your service for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?” (29:25) In fact Jacob uses the exact same word in Hebrew that Isaac used when he complained about being deceived by Jacob (Gen 27:35).

The deception has indeed come back to haunt Jacob.

A week later Jacob gets Rachel as a wife but must work an additional seven years for Laban. Thus Jacob’s family grows exponentially in Haran. He acquires wives and each brings their handmaid, Bilah and Zilpah to the household and Jacob and his wives and their handmaids (who are really third and fourth wives) bring his many children into the world. He acquires wealth when he uses his skill to manipulate the herds of sheep for his uncle and for himself.

Following the birth of son Joseph by Rachel, Jacob determines that it is clearly time for him to return to Canaan and asks Laban for permission to take his family with him. Laban’s sons also had become jealous of his abilities, skills and wealth.Jacob noticed that Laban’s own attitude toward him had changed. Jacob tries to be extremely cautious in his leave taking lest he be caught up once again in deception.

But even as Jacob has learned his lesson, the deception this time comes from none other than his beloved wife, Rachel, who unknowningly to Jacob has stolen the household idols of her father. When Laban learns that Jacob and his entourage including his daughters left while he was away shearing sheep, Laban pursues them. He catches up to them. But on his journey toward them, God comes to Laban in a dream to warn him that no harm should come to Jacob.

Laban swaggers a bit when encountering Jacob, threatening him in a way that shows Jacob he could do him harm, but the Laban’s encounter and warning from God kept him from doing so. He asks Jacob, “Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead me and not tell me? I would have sent you off with festive music, with timbrel and lyre… … But why did you steal my gods?” (Gen 31:27-30)

Jacob says, “Anyone with whom you have find your gods shall not remain alive.” Clearly, he didn’t know that his beloved Rachel, whom he worked 14 years for had stolen the household idols. Laban goes searching for them but doesn’t find them as Rachel deceives her father by hiding them.

Thus the circle of deception is complete. What Jacob started comes back around so that he almost loses that which is most precious to him. He lost Rachel once—in the deception that Laban perpetrated on him by substituting Leah as a bride, and then with his oath of death, he almost loses Rachel again.

God protects Jacob in each of the cases. As if God’s hand is molding the story from above smoothing out the rough edges of our human frailties. Certainly this is true for Jacob and Rachel and we pray it is true for us as well.